ahh

[thisnurse]

the smell of c-diff in the morning

[mario_ragucci]

no one is gonna talk about c-diff end products. Who is brave enough to isolate and colonize c-diff on nutrient agar plate and tell me if it smells. What makes the smell? What causes specific bacteria end products to become air-borne, and then olfactory receptors register c-diff and store it in memory.

Can anyone, intelligently, use text to best describe what c-diff smells like. Sharp? Toxic? Rancid? Ca-ca? StronG?

[judy ann]

Mario, awful is the best discription, but I'll try. Sickeningly sweet with a hint of road kill, and a dash of eau de toxic dump. In other words, awful. It looks kinda like watery mustard, and comes in copious frequent spurts. Sorry, you asked for it.:imbar

[micro, RN]

Originally posted by judy ann

Mario, awful is the best discription, but I'll try. Sickeningly sweet with a hint of road kill, and a dash of eau de toxic dump. In other words, awful. It looks kinda like watery mustard, and comes in copious frequent spurts. Sorry, you asked for it.:imbar

:imbar :imbar :imbar judy ann you said it.....that is the smell.........

[thisnurse]

mario....im sure you have smelled c-dif

[Zee_RN, BSN, RN]

Don't forget the mucusy component to C-diff. Ewwww. Never heard of treating c-diff with unasyn, as someone posted. Flagyl and Vanco are standards here.

[Dplear]

come on now people.....gangrenous feet....gotta love that smell.....

Dave

[mario_ragucci]

Remember, C-diff molecules actually enter your turbibators, sinuses, and rest upon your olfactory bulbs. Learn to become one with your environment :-) The smell of C-diff is a part of you, just like the smell of "chin cheeze" or the smell of fear. Or the smell of an open field you may have run across as a child.

[micro, RN]

Dplear;

oh yes the aroma of gangrene with the visual and tactile stimuli that goes with the dressing change.........

projectile vomitting.....now there you go.........

and the old, old, occult blood as it passes from the body after all is cauterized inside........

whiff, whiff, whiff

hey grab me a salad when you go down.....got to eat a bite before my next dressing change.....hehehehehe

[Squirrel]

thisnurse:

The human colon consists of hundreds of species of bacteria that colonize it, some good and some bad. If the bad ones dominate illness ususally results, and if the good ones dominate they usually keep the bad ones under control. This is what is meant by keeping the colonic ecosystem intact; the promotion of the good bacteria in the colon.

The spores (inactive form) of C-diff are found in many places in the hospital, and when they find an enviornment suitable for growth they germinate and become active. For example, if they are on a bedside table that you touch and you do not wash your hands properly and then touch your mouth, the spores can find their way to your colon. As long as your colonic ecosystem is intact, these spores will not germinate because the good bacteria will prevent that from happening. The research I found indicated that about 5% of healthy adults are colonized with the spores of C-diff, but they are not symptomatic because the spores are not allowed to germinate and become active.

When patients are on antibiotics, the good bacteria are also killed and this sets up an enviornment suitable for the spores of C-diff that are already in the colon to germinate and produce the toxins and this is when the symptoms begin. If supportive therapy does not work, patients are treated with flagyl or vanc to inhibit the growth of C-diff, but with antibiotic therapy even more of the good colonic bacteria are killed making the environment more suitable for C-diff growth. This is why patients have relapses after flagyl and vanc are stopped. Even though flagyl and vanc help in the short term to inhibit growth, they can cause some of they active C-diff to sporulate and become inactive, and when the antibiotics are stopped they can germinate again and produce toxins.

The idea of probiotics is to help the colonic ecosystem stay in balance so even if C-diff finds its way to the colon, it cannot germinate and cause problems.

Mario:

Thanks for the tip on quoting. I will try it later and see how it works. When C-diff is active in the colon, it produces a toxin which causes the inflammatory response on the colonic mucosa and this causes the loss of albumin and fluids from the intestinal cells. This makes for very liquidy diarrhea. The presence of the toxin in the stool gives it the smell. When a patient is being tested for C-diff, a stool sample is taken to the lab and evaluated for the presence of the toxin.

[nursnancy, LPN, RN]

Two things that help to replace the normal flora after Rx therapy for C-diff are yogurt & buttermilk. If the pt will eat/drink these, get an order for them to be included on meal trays.

[kaycee]

Dead tissue full of maggots and roaches has to be the worst thing I've ever smelled. This was both legs of a 68yo homeless man. I'm not sure which was worse, the odor or the creepy crawlies!!

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Do remember maggots only eat dead tissue. Ergo they are the first debriders.